Maya Blake - Greek Bachelors - Paying The Price

‘On the other hand, I’m glad I know this weakness. Because I have a feeling you don’t give yourself permission enough to enjoy the simple things in life.’

Her heart hammered with something suspiciously like elation. ‘And you...you want to give me that?’

‘I want to give you that. I want to indulge you like you’ve never been indulged before.’

Simple words. But oh, so dangerous to her current state of mind.

‘Why?’ she blurted before she could stop herself.

Her question seemed to surprise him. His lashes swept down and veiled his eyes. ‘For starters, I’m hoping to be rewarded with one of those rare smiles of yours.’ He looked back up and his expression stopped her breath. There was a solemn kinship, a gentleness in their depths, that made her heart flip. ‘And because I had my brothers while I dealt with my daddy issues. But you, as far as I know, are an only child, correct?’

Emotion clogged her throat. ‘Correct,’ she croaked, battling the threat of tears.

That weird connection tightened, latched and embedded deeply, frightening but soothing at the same time. ‘Let’s call this therapy, then.’ He glanced down at her plate where one last square of honey-soaked pancake was poised on her fork. ‘Are you finished?’

She hadn’t but the thought of putting that last morsel in her mouth while he watched with those all-seeing eyes was too much to bear. ‘Yes, I’m done. And thank you...for this, I mean. And for...’ She stumbled to a halt, alien feelings rushing through her at dizzying speed.

He nodded, stood and held out his hand. ‘It was my pleasure, agapita.’

* * *

By the time they returned to the office, Brianna knew something had fundamentally changed between them. She didn’t even bother to figure out a way back to equanimity; she couldn’t. Curiously, she didn’t feel as devastated at losing that particular battle.

It helped that they were barely in the door when Sakis threw out a list of things he wanted her to do but, despite the breakneck speed of dealing with his demands, they were soon both plugged into events at Point Noire, especially the clean-up process and the still missing Pantelides Six crewmembers.

After speaking to Morgan Lowell’s wife Perla for the fifth time at six o’clock, Sakis threw his pen on his desk and ran both hands over his stubbled jaw.

‘Are you okay?’

Tired eyes trained on her with breath-stopping intensity.

‘I need to get out of here,’ he rasped as he strode to the door and shrugged into his designer overcoat.

She swallowed and nodded. ‘Do you want me to book a restaurant table for you? Or call a friend to...um...’ She stopped, purely because the thought of arranging a date for Sakis with one of the many women who graced his electronic diary stuck in her gut like a sharp knife.

‘I’m not in the mood to listen to inane conversation about the latest Hollywood gossip or who is screwing whom in my circle of friends.’

His response pleased her way more than it should have. ‘Okay, what can I do?’

His eyes gleamed for a moment, before he looked away and headed towards the door. ‘Nothing.’ He stopped with a hand on the door. ‘I’m meeting Ari for a drink. And you’re logging off for the night. Is that clear, Moneypenny?’

She nodded slowly and watched him walk out, hollowness in her stomach that made her hate herself. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to be the one who wiped away that look of weariness she’d seen in his eyes. And all through today, every time he’d called her ‘Moneypenny’, she’d wanted to beg him to call her ‘Brianna’. Because she loved the way he said her name.

She glanced down at the fingers resting on her keyboard and wasn’t surprised to see them trembling. Her whole being trembled with the depth of the feelings that had been coursing through her all day. Frankly, it scared the hell out of her.

Hurriedly, she shut down the computer and gathered her tablet, phone and handbag. She’d just slid her chair neatly into the space beneath her desk when the phone rang. Thinking it was Sakis—because who else would ring her at seven-thirty on a work night?—she pounced on the handset.

‘Hello?’

‘May I speak to Anna Simpson?’

A spear of ice pinned her in place as her lips parted on a soundless gasp. A full minute passed. Her lungs burned until she managed to force herself back from the brink of unconsciousness. ‘Excuse me, I...I think you’ve got the wrong number.’

The ugly laugh at the end of the line shook her to the very soul. ‘We both know I don’t have the wrong number, don’t we, sweetheart?

She didn’t respond—couldn’t—because the phone had fallen from her nerveless fingers.

Another full minute passed. ‘Hello?’ came the impatient echoing voice. ‘Anna?’

Numbness spreading through her, she picked up the phone. ‘I told you there...there’s no one by that name working here.’

But it was too late. She recognised the taunting, reedy voice at the end of the line. It was a voice she’d been dreading hearing again since her return from Point Noire.

‘I can play along if you prefer, Anna. Hell, I’ll even call you by your new name, Brianna Moneypenny. But we both know to me you’ll always be Anna, don’t we?’ mocked Greg Landers.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘WHAT DO YOU want, Greg?’ Brianna snapped into her mobile phone as she threw her bag on the tiny sofa in her small living room.

‘What? No hello, no pleasantries? Never mind. I’m glad you were sensible enough to return my call. Although, I don’t get why you didn’t want to speak to me at your office. I made sure Pantelides wasn’t there before I called.’

Shock made her grip the edge of the seat. ‘You’re having him watched?’

‘No, I’m having you watched. You’re the one I’m interested in.’

‘Me?’

‘Yes. For now, at least. Tell me, why the name change?’

Bitterness rose in a sweltering tide, bringing a sickening haze that made the furnishings of her small flat blur. ‘Why the hell do you think? You destroyed my life, Greg. After you lied and swore under oath in court that I embezzled funds from your company, when we both know that it was you who set up that Cayman Islands account in my name. Do you think after what you put me through anyone would’ve hired me once they knew I’d been to prison for embezzlement?’

‘Tsk-tsk, let’s not blow things out of proportion, shall we? You served well under half of the four-year prison term. If it’s any consolation, I only expected you to get a slap on the wrist.’

‘It’s not a consolation!’

‘Besides,’ he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted, ‘I hear those prisons are just a step down from glorified holiday camps.’

The scar on her hip—the result of a shiv, courtesy of an inmate whose attention she wouldn’t return—burned at the careless dismissal of what had been a horrific period of her life. ‘It’s a shame you decided not to try it out for yourself, then, instead of turning coward and letting someone else take the blame for your greed. Now, are you going to tell me what this call is about or shall I hang up?’

‘Hang up and I’ll make sure your salacious past is the first thing Pantelides reads about when he steps into that ivory tower of his tomorrow morning.’

Brianna’s hand tightened around the phone at the ruthless tone. ‘How did you find me, anyway?’ Not that it mattered now. But she’d used every last penny to erase her past, to make sure every trace of Anna Simpson was wiped clean as soon as she’d attained her freedom.

‘I didn’t. You found me, through the wonderful medium of TV. Imagine my surprise when I tuned in, like every environmentally conscious individual out there who’s horrified about the Pantelides oil spillage, to find you right behind the main man himself. It took me a few minutes to recognise you, though. I much prefer you blonde to the brunette you used to be. Which is the real thing?’